India v England: James Tredwell wants to repeat his Rajkot heroics

India v England: James Tredwell wants to repeat his Rajkot heroics again despite being considered third-choice spinner

Cook's men won by nine wickets in the opening ODI Photo: Back Page Images

James Tredwell says he wants to repeat his Rajkot heroics again despite being considered third-choice spinner after taking four wickets in England’s nine-run victory over India in the opening one-day international.

The 30-year-old used all his nous to take the sting out of India’s pursuit of the tourists’ total of 325 on Friday, dismissing Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

However, with Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar the preferred choices for England in Test cricket, the Ashford-born spinner knows he must perform at every opportunity whatever format of cricket.

“Unfortunately, it is just the way it is,” said the Kent captain. “The way I look at it is I have to keep on improving and putting the performances in when I do get the chance and show what I can do in training.

“The opportunities are coming in now (on this tour), so hopefully I can keep churning out the performances to keep my name in the ring.”

The off-spinner made his Test and one-day international debut three years ago in Bangladesh with a number of players rested.

Tredwell has since found chances to play few and fair between with England often preferring to play one spinner in Swann or at most two, with Panesar getting the nod.

But with the dust settling on a famous ODI victory – England’s first in India for seven years – Tredwell was keen to stay in the present and not look too far ahead.

“It is pleasing to take wickets in a game like this. I was just trying to stem the flow of runs and build up pressure on the batsmen, not allow them to swing the ball over the top.

“We stuck to it and got over the line. I have an opportunity here to play a few games and show what I can do and hopefully keep my hat in the ring.”